The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-03-28

THE FORTY-NINTH CONGRESS.

The Forty-ninth Congress OF the
United States ended by limitation OF
time at noon of March 4th. It's record
is an interesting one. A Washington
correspondent thus summarizes it. He
writes: ''More bills were introduced in
both houses, more committee reports
made, more bills passed, more became
laws and more were vetoed than ever be-
fore" This simply means that the work of
Congress is steadily increasing, and in
few years more if this feature is not
changed it will tax both Houses to the
utmost to get through with even the
more pressing business.
The Forty-ninth Congress assembled
for dispatch Of business December 4,
1885, and remained in session
till August 9TH, when it ad-
journed until December 9th, and
continued in session until it's close,
covering a total period of ten months
and twenty-six days. OF this time the
Senate was in ses ion 224 days and the
House Psi days. There were introduced
in the House during this time IL ,258
bills and 263 joint resolutions, on which
over 5000 reports were made, being sew
eral thousand more bills and over a
thousand more reports than were made
in the orty-eighth Congress, which had
IN It's turn beaten the record.
In the Senate 1857 bills and 118 joint
resolutions were introduced, on which
1888 written reports were made, being
upwards of 500 more bills and over 400
more reports than in the record-break-
ing Forty-eighth Congress. The total
number of laws enacted was approx
mately 1 ,431, of which 1,O93 originated
in the House and 338 in the Senate.
Two-hundred and fifty-four of these be-
came laws by the expiration of the con-
stitutional ten-days' limitation Fifty
bills failed to become laws owing to the
adjournment of Congress, one of them
at the close of the first session. There
were 1872 bills vetoed by the President,
or twenty-one more instances of the ex-
ercise of the Presidential prerogatiYe of
the veto than had occurred from the |
foundation of the Government down to
the beginning of this Congress- OF the |
vetoed bills ninety-four originated in the |
House and thirty-eight in the Senate
But one private bill, that granting pen
sion to Joseph Remeiser, and one pub
lie bill-namely, that providing for the
erection of Government buildings at |
Dayton, O., succeeded in passing both |
Houses over the Presidents veto, al
though several others obtained the requi-
site two-thirds vote in the Senate, only |
to fail in the House.
The death roll of the Forty-ninth Con- !
gress was an extraordinary one, COM
lrising the unprecedented number of |
thirteen in the House and Senate. One I
election case was decided by the House |
against the sitting member, but this
Congress was characterized by an alb
sence of that acrimonious discussion
which contests usually awaken.
OF ,043 House bills which became
laws 275 were of more or less public
nature. Of the remaining 77S bills
granting pensions or relief to specially
designated pefsons) 156 became laws
without the approval of the President.
This is the record in brief as furnished
by an intelligent newspaper correspond
ent, and it gives a very clear idea of the
magnitude of the work done during two
ordinary sessions of the United States
Congress.